Founded in May 1783 at Steuben's headquarters near Newburg, N.Y., by officers of the Continental army and navy, the Society of the Cincinnati was at one time one of America's most controversial organizations. In Liberty without Anarchy, Minor Myers relates how the officers, who had not been paid for four years, began to circulate rumors of a military coup. The society, with Washington as President-General, was formed to exert political pressure on Congress to guarantee payment in response to the angry men.

Many Americans, Thomas Jefferson principal among them, viewed the new organization with suspicion, as a seedbed for a hereditary American aristocracy. As Myers points out, the fears were well-founded: many society members were monarchists, and in 1786 Steuben himself wrote to Prince Henry of Prussia inquiring whether he might be interested in becoming king of the United States. Prince Henry declined.

The interest in monarchy ended with the adoption of the federal Constitution in 1787, with many society members as delegates to the Convention, but it was not until 1827 that the original pay dispute was resolved and the officers awarded a pension. With unprecedented access to the society's papers and documents, Minor Myers has produced a highly readable history of this fascinating organization, in which he concludes that the Society is an important reminder of the road the American revolutionaries avoided--the road that led from revolution to army coup to military dictatorship--a road taken by most of the armed revolutions of the last two hundred years.

tag: The history of how a powerful and potentially subversive group of officers made the choice for liberty during the Revolutionary War

" Entre le Savoir et le Culte presente des etudes et documents originaux qui mettent a jour l'evolution de l'islam et du christianisme parmi les etudiants d'universites des pays du Sahel. Il revele les fissures et les conflits entre les groupes, et analyse leurs modes oraux, ecrits et vestimentaires d'affichage et de performance. Cet ouvrage apporte ainsi un puissant eclairage sur l'emprise du religieux sur l'elite en formation, et examine les deux interrogations qui alimentent l'activisme religieux universitaire la signification de la revendication d'une identite musulmane ou chretienne, et comment celle-ci faconne la modernite des deux religions et vice-versa. A lire pour comprendre le dynamisme des terribles crises qui amenent la region sahelienne a se tourner sur elle-meme. " - Mamadou Diouf, Leitner Family Professor of African Studies, Columbia University, Etats-Unis. " Quelquefois negligees ou mal comprises par les analystes etrangers, les universites saheliennes sont le theatre de debats profonds sur l'identite nationale, et d'importantes negociations autour de la religiosite et de l'ethnicite. Cette collection rassemble les travaux d'eminents specialistes dans ce domaine, et propose une perspective riche et comparative de leur travail collectif, ancree dans leur recherche sur le terrain. L'ouvrage sera indispensable a tous les chercheurs, analystes, et decideurs politiques qui travaillent sur le Sahel. Ces chapitres contribueront beaucoup a la comprehension des experiences et priorites d'une generation d'activistes et de leaders qui marqueront la region dans les annees a venir. " - Alex Thurston, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Universite de Cincinnati, Etats-Unis Contributeurs: Mamadou Ballo, Mamadou Bodian, Mamadou Lamine Dembele, Ladiba Gondeu, Koudbi Desire Kabore, Abakar Walar Modou, Elemine Ould Mohamed Baba Moustapha, Benjamin Soares, Magloire Some, Abdoulaye Sounaye, Leonardo A. Villalon.

Whether picketing outside abortion clinics, speaking out at school board meetings, or attending anti-death penalty vigils, many Americans have publicly opposed local, state, or federal government policies on the basis of their religious convictions. In The Fracture of Good Order , Jason Bivins examines the growing phenomenon of Christian protest against civil authority and political order in the United States. He argues that since the 1960s, there has been a proliferation of religious activism against what protesters perceive as government's excessive power and lack of moral principle. Calling this phenomenon ""Christian antiliberalism,"" Bivins finds at its center a belief that American politics is based on a liberal tradition that gives government too much social and economic influence and threatens the practice of a religious life. Focusing on the Catholic pacifism of Daniel and Philip Berrigan and the Jonah House resistance community, the Christian Right's homeschooling movement, and the evangelical Sojourners community, Bivins combines religious studies with political theory to explore the common ground shared by these disparate groups. Despite their vast ideological and institutional differences, Bivins argues, these activists justify their actions in overtly religious terms based on a rejection of basic tenets of the American political system. Analyzing the widespread dissatisfaction with the conventional forms of political identity and affiliation that characterize American civic life today, Bivins sheds light on the complex relations between religion and democratic society. |Bivins examines Christian activist groups not usually considered together, from the Berrigan brothers to the New Christian Right movement, to show that despite their differing agendas, all are opposed to the government's excessive power and lack of moral influence. Christian antiliberalism, as Bivins calls it, brings religious language and symbolic actions to bear on a political system whose authority is perceived as morally bankrupt.

No idea has captured the imagination or expressed the hopes of Arabs in the twentieth century as has Arab nationalism, and perhaps no subject has received so much attention from historians of the Middle East. But, while many historians have explored its intellectual sources, few have considered the social and political environment in which Arab nationalism evolved as an ideological movement. This study attempts to correct the imbalance and, in the process, provides a fascinating interpretation of the rise of the ideology of nationalism within the Arab world. The book focuses on the social and political life of the great notable families of Ottoman Damascus, who, before World War I, played a crucial part in translating the idea into political action. Dr Khoury explains how such long-term factors as the Ottoman reformation, European economic expansion and agrarian commercialization in Syria encouraged rival and socially differentiated networks of influential families to merge into a cohesive upper class. Under the umbrella of a reinvigorated Ottoman central authority, this class of landowners and bureaucrats produced a new urban leadership, which dominated local politics after 1860.

"Jan's book shows the vitality of the civil society in both cities and suburbs in New Jersey. It is the first book to demonstrate the strength of the civil society in both cities and suburbs in our state. Civic leaders in cities and suburbs should read the book to find plenty of insights and solid organizing advice to help them to mobilize their communities for change."-Ira Resnick, Neighborhood Leadership Initiative Community Foundation of New Jersey Civic movements are essential to Americans' freedom and quality of life. Active citizens have led the way from the American Revolution to urban renewal. But fiery emotions and good intentions without skillful organization can lead to frustrated civic involvement. How can individual concerns be transformed into effective community action? Jan Barry provides a pragmatic, common-sense handbook to civic action. Using case studies from his home state of New Jersey, Barry has crafted what he calls a "guidebook for creative improvement on the American dream." He dissects civic actions such as environmental campaigns, mutual-help groups, neighborhood improvement projects, and a grassroots peace mission to Russia. Looking for patterns to explain successes and failures, Barry includes his own experiences as a Vietnam veteran peace activist to inspire and coach fledgling activists. The result is a wealth of practical, non-partisan information on membership recruitment, organizational skills, public speaking, lobbying, publicity, conflict resolution, and more. Rising above any particular political, social, or religious beliefs, Barry shows would-be activists how to confront one enduring truth -"Democracy is a lot harder to do than it is to talk about or fight over."

Youth in Revolutionary Russia: Enthusiasts, Bohemians, Delinquents
Anne E. Gorsuch

A vivid account of Bolshevik efforts to "Sovietize" young people in the 1920s.

"A very impressive work broad, learned, and very readable." Lynn Mally

"A welcome and fascinating addition to the social and cultural history of the 1920s in Russia and to the comparative study of youth politics and culture in contemporary Europe and elsewhere." Mark von Hagen

In Bolshevik Russia, the successful transformation of young people into communists was crucial for the future of the Soviet state. Soviet youth needed to be shaped into communists in every aspect of their daily lives work, leisure, gender relations, and family life. But how could the Bolsheviks accomplish this enormous project? What did it mean to be "made communist"? What were the consequences if prerevolutionary and "bourgeois" culture and social relations could not be transformed into new socialist forms of behavior and belief? Drawing from a wide range of sources diaries, party speeches, propagandistic writings, scientific studies, and literature Anne E. Gorsuch reveals the rich diversity of youth cultures in Soviet Russia during the 1920s. She explores the relationship between representation and reality and between official ideology and popular culture, along with the meaning of these relationships for the making of a Soviet state and society. From the clash between ultracommunist visions of what Russian young people should be and the flamboyant style of flappers and foxtrotters so prominently imported from the capitalist West, emerges a vivid picture of the construction of Soviet youth. Thoughtful and appealing, Youth in Revoluntionary Russia is essential reading for those interested in popular culture and Soviet history.
Anne E. Gorsuch is Assistant Professor of History at the University of British Columbia.

Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies Alexander Rabinowitch and William G. Rosenberg, editors

Contents
Introduction: Youth and Culture
The Politics of Generation
The Urban Environment
Making Youth Communist
Excesses of Enthusiasm
Gender and Generation
Flappers and Foxtrotters
Life and Leisure on the Street
Discourses of Delinquency
Epilogue"

"They assess the effectiveness of the organizing tactics employed, casting particular scrutiny on the courts as agents of social change...The authors have presented concrete examples, all the while making clear that there are no road maps for successful organizing."
-- "New York Law Journal"

"This is an important and unusual booka].It is an academic book on an important issue
--the environmental justice movement
--that is timely and relevant."
--"Argumentation and Advocacy"

When Bill Clinton signed an Executive Order on Environmental Justice in 1994, the phenomenon of environmental racism--the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards, particularly toxic waste dumps and polluting factories, on people of color and low-income communities--gained unprecedented recognition. Behind the President's signature, however, lies a remarkable tale of grassroots activism and political mobilization. Today, thousands of activists in hundreds of locales are fighting for their children, their communities, their quality of life, and their health.

From the Ground Up critically examines one of the fastest growing social movements in the United States, the movement for environmental justice. Tracing the movement's roots, Luke Cole and Sheila Foster combine long-time activism with powerful storytelling to provide gripping case studies of communities across the U.S--towns like Kettleman City, California; Chester, Pennsylvania; and Dilkon, Arizona--and their struggles against corporate polluters. The authors effectively use social, economic and legal analysis to illustrate the historical and contemporary causes for environmental racism. Environmental justice struggles, theydemonstrate, transform individuals, communities, institutions and even the nation as a whole.

The story of one of America's first historic preservationists and the city she fought to save One of the most remarkable women born in the Reconstruction South, Susan Pringle Frost was an outspoken champion of a host of important causes, including women's rights, a more active and accountable local government, and better treatment of African Americans. In his biography of this dynamic Charlestonian, Sidney Bland enumerates Frost's many accomplishments and chronicles what he considers to be her greatest achievement--spearheading a historic preservation movement in Charleston that became the model for preservationists throughout the country. Bland recounts Frost's early life as a member of an illustrious Charleston family and her entrance into the workplace, caused partly by her father's financial failures. He tells how she defied convention by establishing a real estate office in Charleston's all-male professional district, sparked an interest in preservation by buying and renovating houses on and around Charleston's oldest thoroughfare, and founded the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings, one of the nation's oldest historic preservation groups and the forerunner of the Preservation Society of Charleston. Offering vivid insight into the courage, perseverance, and eccentricity of a woman he considers a complex and often inconsistent crusader, he credits Frost with garnering support for the city's landmark Historic District Zoning Ordinance and traces specific staples of present-day historic preservation methods to her visionary initiatives. A finalist for the South Carolina Historical Society's best book of the year in South Carolina history, Preserving Charleston's Past, Shaping Its Future illuminates the life of a pioneer in historic preservation and a feminist whose activism helped save Charleston's old architecture and generated a wider preservation movement.

Aili Mari Tripp explains why autocratic leaders in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria embraced more extensive legal reforms of women's rights than their Middle Eastern counterparts. The study challenges existing accounts that rely primarily on religiosity to explain the adoption of women's rights in Muslim-majority countries. Based on extensive fieldwork in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and an original database of gender-based reforms in the Middle East and North Africa, this accessible study analyzes how women's rights are used both instrumentally and symbolically to advance the political goals of authoritarian regimes as leverage in attempts to side-line religious extremists. It shows how Islamist political parties have been forced to dramatically change their positions on women's rights to ensure political survival. In an original contribution to the study of women's rights in the Middle East and North Africa, Tripp reveals how women's rights movements have capitalized on moments of political turmoil to defend and advance their cause.

'We need effective citizen-lobbyists - not just likers, followers or even marchers - more than ever. I have no hesitation in lobbying you to read this book.' Bill Emmott, former editor in chief, the Economist Many democratic societies are experiencing a crisis of faith. Citizens are making clear their frustration with their supposedly representative governments, which instead seem driven by the interests of big business, powerful individuals and wealthy lobby groups. What can we do about it? How do we fix democracy and get our voices heard? The answer, argues Alberto Alemanno, is to become change-makers - citizen lobbyists. By using our skills and talents and mobilizing others, we can bring about social and political change. Whoever you are, you've got power, and this book will show you how to unleash it. From successfully challenging Facebook's use of private data to abolishing EU mobile phone roaming charges, Alberto highlights the stories of those who have lobbied for change, and shows how you can follow in their footsteps, whether you want to influence immigration policy, put pressure on big business or protect your local community.

PERHAPS BEST known for Broadside, the influential magazine they founded in 1962, Agnes "Sis" Cunningham and Gordon Friesen have long been renowned figures on the American left. In this book, these two dedicated social activists -- Sis the folk musician and Gordon the radical journalist -- offer a spirited account of their personal and political odyssey. The story is illustrated with numerous photographs and drawings.

Born into poverty in rural Oklahoma, further shaped by the hardships of the "dustbowl" Depression years, Sis and Gordon were already committed to radical causes when they met and married in 1941. A short time later they moved to New York City, where they befriended Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Sis joined the folk protest group the Almanac Singers, and Gordon continued his work as a journalist.

Although blacklisted for their political views during the McCarthy era, Sis and Gordon persevered and eventually launched Broadside, which they continued to produce for almost twenty years. The magazine was instrumental in promoting the careers of many singer-songwriters, publishing the first works of such artists as Bob Dylan, Janis Ian, Phil Ochs, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Tom Paxton, as well as the works of more established figures, including Malvina Reynolds and Pete Seeger. Indeed, Broadside helped give birth to a musical revival that energized the country and forged a vital link between the folk music of the 1930s and 1940s and the urban folk revivalists of the 1960s and 1970s.

With this book, Nancy Isenberg illuminates the origins of the women's rights movement. Rather than herald the singular achievements of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention, she examines the confluence of events and ideas--before and after 1848--that, in her view, marked the real birth of feminism. Drawing on a wide range of sources, she demonstrates that women's rights activists of the antebellum era crafted a coherent feminist critique of church, state, and family. In addition, Isenberg shows, they developed a rich theoretical tradition that influenced not only subsequent strains of feminist thought but also ideas about the nature of citizenship and rights more generally. By focusing on rights discourse and political theory, Isenberg moves beyond a narrow focus on suffrage. Democracy was in the process of being redefined in antebellum America by controversies over such volatile topics as fugitive slave laws, temperance, Sabbath laws, capital punishment, prostitution, the Mexican War, married women's property rights, and labor reform--all of which raised significant legal and constitutional questions. These pressing concerns, debated in women's rights conventions and the popular press, were inseparable from the gendered meaning of nineteenth-century citizenship. |Illuminates the origins of American feminism by showing how antebellum feminists moved beyond suffrage to influence thinking about the nature of citizenship and rights more generally.

In recent years the terms 'genocide' and 'ethnic cleansing' have not only re-entered the common vocabulary, but seem now to be tolerated and accepted as the inevitable consequences of the wars and conflicts that, as much as ever before, plague the world's landscape. But as yet there is no globally accepted structure through which conflict can be tackled. How should we as individuals, as nations and as an international community respond to conflict? Civil Wars, Civil Peace offers a radical new approach to conflict prevention, resolution and diplomacy. Designed for undergraduate students as well as for practitioners and peace negotiators, the book provides an overview of conflict in the post-Cold War world, covering key topics such as identifying and assessing early warnings of conflict, and the need to take early action; information gathering and analysis; and the need for preventive diplomacy. In particular, the role of non-governmental organisations and other third-party mediators in conflict resolution is considered.

Women reformers in the United States and Germany maintained a brisk dialogue between 1885 and 1933. Drawing on one another's expertise, they sought to alleviate a wide array of social injustices generated by industrial capitalism, such as child labor and the exploitation of women in the workplace. This book presents and interprets documents from that exchange, most previously unknown to historians, which show how these interactions reflected the political cultures of the two nations.

On both sides of the Atlantic, women reformers pursued social justice strategies. The documents discussed here reveal the influence of German factory legislation on debates in the United States, point out the differing contexts of the suffrage movement, compare pacifist and antipacifist reactions of women to World War I, and trace shifts in the feminist movements of both countries after the war.

Social Justice Feminists in the United States and Germany provides insight into the efforts of American and German women over half a century of profound social change. Through their dialogue, these women explicate their larger political cultures and the place they occupied in them.

In this book, Bryant Simon brings to life the politics of white South Carolina millhands during the first half of the twentieth century. His revealing and moving account explores how this group of southern laborers thought about and participated in politics and public power. Taking a broad view of politics, Simon looks at laborers as they engaged in political activity in many venues--at the polling station, on front porches, and on the shop floor--and examines their political involvement at the local, state, and national levels. He describes the campaign styles and rhetoric of such politicians as Coleman Blease and Olin Johnston (himself a former millhand), who eagerly sought the workers' votes. He draws a detailed picture of mill workers casting ballots, carrying placards, marching on the state capital, writing to lawmakers, and picketing factories. These millhands' politics reflected their public and private thoughts about whiteness and blackness, war and the New Deal, democracy and justice, gender and sexuality, class relations and consumption. Ultimately, the people depicted here are neither romanticized nor dismissed as the stereotypically racist and uneducated ""rednecks"" found in many accounts of southern politics. Southern workers understood the political and social forces that shaped their lives, argues Simon, and they developed complex political strategies to deal with those forces. |Brings to life the politics of white South Carolina millhands from 1920 to 1945. Examines laborers as they engaged in political activity and shows how their politics reflected their public and private opinions.

At a time when the American labor movement is mobilizing for a major resurgence through new organizing, here, at last, is a book about research on union organizing strategies. Previous studies have focused on factors contributing to union decline, devoting little attention to the organizing process itself. The twenty chapters in this volume dramatically increase understanding of the range and effectiveness of new organizing strategies and their potential contribution to the revitalization of the labor movement.

The introduction defines the context of the current organizing climate. Major sections of the book cover strategic initiatives in union organizing, overcoming barriers to worker support for unions, community-based organizing, building membership and public support for organizing, and organizing initiatives by industry or by sector. Individual chapters focus on topics such as organizing outside the NLRB process, the role of clergy, local labor councils, and rank-and-file volunteer organizers.

Agenda-setting is a key component in the democratic process if political outsiders are to have their concerns taken seriously. However, their efforts sometimes fail for reasons other than insufficient resources or incompetent leaders: opponents often succeed in keeping new issues from ever reaching the agendas of decision-makers.

This is the first book devoted to examining why some issues proposed by aggrieved individuals or groups are denied access to policy agendas. It develops a theoretical framework for the study of agenda setting and agenda denial, emphasizing the cultural strategies opponents use to impede and defeat policy initiatives, and examining specific strategies of avoidance, attack, and redefinition that explain why certain issues don't receive consideration.

The book contains seven case studies that examine the policy process from the perspective of the strategies opponents of policy initiatives use and demonstrate that agenda denial can result when opponents succeed in portraying initiatives as threats to widely held world views and identities. Four cases involving federal agencies show how the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Food and Drug Administration have kept issues off their own agendas, how the accounting profession has avoided SEC regulation, and how pro-life forces kept the French abortion pill off the FDA agenda. Two cases focusing on public health issues examine why national health insurance has never made it onto the federal agenda and how local agencies in Texas prevented residents of minority neighborhoods from obtaining clean water. Finally, a case from outside the U.S. shows how Kurt Waldheim's Nazi past failed to become an issue in his campaign for President of Austria.

While most books emphasize issue initiators, Cultural Strategies of Agenda Denial makes a unique addition to the agenda-setting literature by focusing on the actions of opponents and emphasizing the political importance of cultural resources and culturally constituted ideas to the ongoing debate in political science concerning how open and democratic our system really is.

This masterful biography by one of America's foremost historians of women tells the story of Florence Kelley, a leading reformer in the Progressive Era. The book also serves as a political history of the United States during a period of transforming change when women worked to end the abuses of unregulated industrial capitalism. Kelley's story shows how changes in women's public culture combined with changes in men's public culture to produce results that neither could have achieved alone. In this volume, the first of two, Kathryn Kish Sklar explores the decades between 1830 and 1900, an era when women's organizations lent unprecedented power to their activism. After analyzing how earlier generations set the stage for women's centrality in the 1890s, she depicts the first forty years of Florence Kelley's life, telling of her childhood as a member of an elite Philadelphia family, her graduation from Cornell University in 1882, her immersion in European socialism, her search for a meaningful place within American political culture, and her rise to extraordinary public power in Chicago as a resident at Jane Addams's Hull House. Kelley's long career demonstrates that women's activism embodied the most deeply rooted characteristics of the American polity, particularly American traditions of voluntarism and limited government, the weakness of class as a vehicle for political mobilization, and the strength of gender. During the crisis-ridden years of massive immigration, industrialization, and urbanization between 1870 and 1900, Florence Kelley and other women offered an effective alternative to the male-dominated status quo.

The biographies of more than 800 women form the basis for Elna Green's study of the suffrage and the antisuffrage movements in the South. Green's comprehensive analysis highlights the effects that factors such as class background, marital status, educational level, and attitudes about race and gender roles had in inspiring the region's women to work in favor of, or in opposition to, their own enfranchisement.
Green sketches the ranks of both movements--which included women and men, black and white--and identifies the ways in which issues of class, race, and gender determined the composition of each side. Coming from a wide array of beliefs and backgrounds, Green argues, southern women approached enfranchisement with an equally varied set of strategies and ideologies. Each camp defined and redefined itself in opposition to the other. But neither was entirely homogeneous: issues such as states' rights and the enfranchisement of black women were so divisive as to give rise to competing organizations within each group. By focusing on the grassroots constituency of each side, Green provides insight into the whole of the suffrage debate.

The Grand Army of the Republic, the largest of all Union Army veterans' organizations, was the most powerful single-issue political lobby of the late nineteenth century, securing massive pensions for veterans and helping to elect five postwar presidents from its own membership. To its members, it was also a secret fraternal order, a source of local charity, a provider of entertainment in small municipalities, and a patriotic organization. Using GAR convention proceedings, newspapers, songs, rule books, and local post records, Stuart McConnell examines this influential veterans' association during the years of its greatest strength.
Beginning with a close look at the men who joined the GAR in three localities -- Philadelphia; Brockton, Massachusetts; and Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin - McConnell goes on to examine the Union veterans' attitudes towards their former Confederate enemies and toward a whole range of noncombatants whom the verterans called "civilians": stay-at-home townsfolk, Mugwump penion reformers, freedmen, women, and their own sons and daughters. In the GAR, McConnell sees a group of veterans trying to cope with questions concerning the extent of society's obligation to the poor and injured, the place of war memories in peacetime, and the meaning of the "nation" and the individual's relation to it.
McConnell aruges that, by the 1890s, the GAR was clinging to a preservationist version of American nationalism that many white, middle-class Northerners found congenial in the face of the social upheavals of that decade. In effect, he concludes, the nineteenth-century career of the GAR is a study in the microcosm of a nation trying to hold fast to an older image of itself in the face of massive social change.

Based on original materials gathered from extensive international travel, hundreds of interviews and empirical field research, thims text studies Pan-African organizations and their political activities inside black communities.

"[Fogel's] exceedingly careful testing of all possible sources and his pioneering methodological approach have allowed [him] both to increase our knowledge of an institutions operation and disintegration and to renew our methods of research." —from the citation to Robert William Fogel for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

Over the past quarter-century, Robert William Fogel has blazed new trails in scholarship on the lives of the slaves in the American South. Now he presents the dramatic rise and fall of the "peculiar institution," as the abolitionist movement rose into a powerful political force that pulled down a seemingly impregnable system.

"Few historians have more skillfully integrated economic with social, intellectual, and political history. . . . Pleasurable as well as instructive reading for anyone interested in the most fateful of our national crimes and the most fearful of our national crises. . . . [A] splendid book." —Eugene D. Genovese, Los Angeles Times Book Review

In this groundbreaking study, Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr examines the origins, historical development, and political strategies of one of the oldest and most influential Islamic revival movements, the Jama'at-i Islami of Pakistan. He focuses on the inherent tension between the movement's idealized vision of the nation as a holy community based in Islamic law and its political agenda of socioeconomic change for Pakistani society.
Nasr's work goes beyond the exploration of a single party to examine the diverse sociopolitical roots of contemporary Islamic revivalism, challenging many of the standard interpretations about political expressions of Islam.

Crime and gentrification are hot button issues that easily polarize racially diverse neighborhoods. How do residents, activists, and politicians navigate the thorny politics of race as they fight crime or resist gentrification? And do conflicts over competing visions of neighborhood change necessarily divide activists into racially homogeneous camps, or can they produce more complex alliances and divisions? In Us versus Them, Jan Doering answers these questions through an in-depth study of two Chicago neighborhoods. Drawing on three and a half years of ethnographic fieldwork, Doering examines how activists and community leaders clashed and collaborated as they launched new initiatives, built coalitions, appeased critics, and discredited opponents. At the heart of these political maneuvers, he uncovers a ceaseless battle over racial meanings that unfolded as residents strove to make local initiatives and urban change appear racially benign or malignant. A thoughtful and clear-eyed contribution to the field, Us versus Them reveals the deep impact that competing racial meanings have on the fabric of community and the direction of neighborhood change.

Throughout the history of the USSR, groups of like-minded people have gathered, without official permission, to discuss issues of common interest. They had their predecessors in prerevolutionary voluntary associations and political parties. During the 1960s it became easier and less dangerous than in the previous period of Stalin's rule to engage in activities outside government control. Indeed, since the de-Stalinization campaign in the 1950s, Soviet society has been slowly asserting its independence, at least in areas nominally nonpolitical. Nevertheless, until Gorbachev's drive for liberalization achieved some momentum, the creation of unsanctioned groups often continued to provoke persecution of their members. In this book, Vera Tolz studies these unsanctioned groups and reveals the effect they are having on the Soviet political system. In 1990, primarily because of pressure from these unofficial movements, the Communist party was forced to relinquish its constitutionally guaranteed monopoly on power. In other words, a multiparty system had emerged in the USSR by the end of the period under observation in this book. From the time that voluntary associations of Soviet people were permitted to emerge from the underground and openly participate in official public life (1987), their role in the political and social life of the country has been rapidly expanding. By 1989, new sociopolitical groups, especially in the Baltic republics and Transcaucasia, started to pose not only a challenge but also a threat to the power of the Communist party. The emergence of a multiparty system in the Soviet Union, with various political groups pursuing different--and at times opposing--goals, is coinciding with a period during which the central authorities are being inconsistent in implementing democratic reforms. Representatives of new movements are often politically inexperienced, and the Communist party is facing a serious crisis, which makes the political situation in the Soviet Union highly unpredictable and highlights the difficulties that the country faces in moving toward a more democratic system